LA continues to play host to one of the most diverse technology ecosystems in the nation, with technology embedded into every industry from entertainment to healthcare. Yesterday, the driving forces behind this flourishing ecosystem came together in Santa Monica for the fourth annual LA Tech Summit, hosted by Cornerstone, to inspire, learn and network with more than 900 other innovators and enterprisers from LA's world-changing tech community.
The day kicked off with a keynote from our CEO Adam Miller, who noted that the number of people with significant technology experience in LA has created the conditions for an extremely successful tech community and a growing talent pool. This is just the beginning of innovation for the LA tech scene, said Miller, noting that just four years ago we were not able to fill the agenda with companies based in LA.
This year's conference attendees witnessed over 50 speakers take the stage, covering everything from drones and Augmented Reality to hyper growth and raising first round capital, 100 percent of which had companies based in LA.
Betting Big on LA
Many speakers throughout the day spoke about the bright future and past of tech innovation in LA and offered advice to entrepreneurs just starting out, emphasizing the importance of investing in your talent and your customers.
"People spend far too much attention to their competitors and not enough to their customers." - David Travers @ZipRecruiter @LATechSummit
— Mel Linehan (@MLinsight) October 25, 2016
#LosAngeles has been a tech innovator for at least 100 years, starting with first commercial airline built in @GoSantaMonica. #LATechSummit
— AnahitaF (@anahitaf) October 25, 2016
@LATechSummit@amiller29 Depth of diverse talent in LA cuts across so many industries -> crossover leads to greater innovation. #ILA2016
— innovateLA (@innovateinLA) October 25, 2016
Fostering a Sense of Community
Loot Crate's CEO, Chris David discussed how fostering a sense of community was key to achieving their hypergrowth status—accelerating past $100 million in annual revenue in just four years—emphasizing that onboarding and building out core teams like HR early on made all the difference.
Mitch Lasky, a top venture capitalist who has invested in two of LA's most successful tech companies — Snapchat and Riot Games — commented on the great sense of community in LA, a sentiment that was reiterated throughout the day.
@lootcrate Identify your weaknesses and fill your own and team gaps quickly #latechsummit
— kirstenmaas (@kirstenmaas) October 25, 2016
.@lootcrate CEO Chris Davis on hypergrowth: "You need to invest in the people who make the company work" #latechsummit #Inc5000
— Michelle Haworth (@MichelleHaworth) October 25, 2016
@lootcrate Communicating and hiring are my key responsibilities. Letting the people we hire lead #latechsummit
— matt carrasco (@ProjSubterranya) October 25, 2016
New Tech on the Scene
This year's summit featured content creators representing a diverse set of digital mediums from YouTube and Snapchat to Augmented and Virtual Reality and mobile games. Each entrepreneur shared their best advice for achieving success and the biggest challenges they encountered along the way, with many speakers emphasizing the importance of not losing sight of what your audience really wants.
Unlike @facebook , @Snap is entirely in the cloud --> less expenses - @mitchlasky of Benchmark. #latechsummit
— AnahitaF (@anahitaf) October 25, 2016
.@mitchlasky sez Snap CEO Evan thinks of it as a camera co. w/ social addOn,not vice versa. A nuanced but important mindshift #latechsummit
— Eric Wu (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و (@eywu) October 25, 2016
.@onwevr "The biggest challenge in #VR outside of the creation of the content, is how do you get it to the people?" #LATechSummit
— LA Tech Summit (@LATechSummit) October 25, 2016
I'm long-term bullish on #VR (10 years) ~ @mitchlasky #LaTechSummit @CornerstoneInc
— Liz H. Kelly (@lizhkelly) October 25, 2016
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